Do Puppy Mill Laws Help Reduce the Numbers?
August 20th, 2010
Puppy Mill
When speaking with a friend last week who has a rescue in Missouri, we were discussing some ideas on how to reduce the dogs and cats that find their way into the municipal shelter and if they’re lucky, eventually into her rescue.
One of the main problems in Missouri is that it is the Puppy Mill Capital of the Country and is home to more than one third of the nation’s puppy mills.
We discussed Proposition B, which will be on the ballot in Missouri in November. The proposed legislation would require people with more than 10 breeding dogs to meet new standards for housing, veterinary care and food. It would limit breeders to 50 dogs.
I expressed hope that the bill, if passed, would put some of the puppy millers out of business. According to ABC News, similar legislation in Pennsylvania, which competed with Missouri annually for the most puppy mills, put many puppy millers out of business.
The number of mills in Pennsylvania was reduced from over 300 to just 111 at the beginning of the year.
The cost to comply with the law was just too much for many Pennsylvania puppy millers and they went out of business. That law, however, is the toughest in the country, requiring dogs to have access to the outside to feel grass beneath their feet. It also requires them to do away with wire bottom cages and doesn’t allow the stacking of cages any longer.
Several other states, including Louisiana, enacted tougher puppy mill laws in 2008.
It’s unclear what, if any difference Missouri’s Proposition B, would make in the number of puppy mills in the state. My friend expressed doubts that such legislation would do much, if anything to reduce the amount of puppy mills. She told me she has a neighbor who has been cited several times for USDA violations and he just closes and reopens under another name.
I see her point. I’ve written stories on puppy mills since 2000 and have seen numerous mills violated on several occasions and continue to run business as usual. In one instance, a miller simply closed, sold her property in Kansas and moved on to Colorado.
Do you think tougher puppy mill laws are helping reduce the number of unwanted pets, or will, once more states enact them?
Tags: do puppy mill laws help reduce the numbers, missouri proposition b, puppy mill
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Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell has had dogs all of her life. Her first rescue was Hershey, a miniature black and brown Dacshund. She ruled the Campbell household until 2005 when she passed away at age 16. The case of Scruffy, a Yorkshire terrier whose torture death was videotaped in 1997, horrified the nation when the tape appeared on national news shows. Kerri began covering the trial for the local daily newspaper in Kansas City, Kansas where the crime occurred. Her investigation into animal cruelty cases led to her awareness of the puppy mill problem in that state.
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